EPSON INDIA WANTS MORE CHANNEL PARTNERS

Epson Scales Up Growth Plans, to Add New PartnersINDIA May 2006Epson,
the digital imaging and printing solutions company, plans to appoint
about 800 new channel partners by March 2007 to grow its inkjet and
All-in-One market share.According to S. M. Ramprasad,
manager-consumer products, Epson India, the company currently has 2,200
channel partners, out of which about 1,600 are consistent performers.
“The addition of partners would constitute a mix of retail partners and
regular dealers. This move is in keeping with Epson’s plans to increase
its growth in the inkjet and All-in-One segments,” he said.He
further added, “During last year ended March 2006, Epson was the only
brand in the inkjet segment to have grown by 21 percent despite a
falling market, while our All-in-One segment grew by a full 300 percent
(from 3 percent to 10 percent). This year, in terms of market share, we
hope to scale 25 percent in the inkjet printers and about 18 percent in
the All-in-One.”On the retail front, the company has increased its
count to about 683 outlets, with 417 more outlets to be added by
September 2007. “Additionally, Epson will open about 100 photo outlets
in the first phase in nine metros and mini-metros across the country.
These outlets would cater to the photo printer/digicam market,”
Ramprasad added.According to Ramprasad, Epson follows a relatively
uniform pricing model for the entry-level C45 printers and the channel
can “easily earn at least 10 percent in incentives alone”. Besides the
backends and training, the company is speeding up processing time on
its channel transactions.The company plams to launch a Web-based
solution to help its retail partners to calculate their sales,
purchases, discounts, incentives, etc. by June 2006.